Garment hangers



1966 M. ESKENAZI 3,266,685

GARMENT HANGERS Filed March 30, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

MURRA Y L. ES'KENAZ/ ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,266,685 GARMENT HANGERS Murray L. Eskenazi, 8 Judith Court, East Rockaway, N.Y. Filed Mar. 30, 1965, Ser. No. 443,927 2 Claims. (Cl. 223-95) This invention relates generally to garment hangers and more particularly to garment hangers especially adapted for industrial use and having an improved. construction to provide greater versatility at reduced cost.

Garment hangers of the industrial type must necessarily be of stronger construction in order to have a long life of constant use during garment manufacture. One step during the manufacture of some garments is the curing of the resin treated fabric at elevated temperatures and the hangers must be able to withstand temperatures of the curing ovens. Also, to minimize the stock of hangers, it is also desirable that the hangers be capable of accommodating a variety of garment sizes. However, for each size of garment, the pressure applied to the garment by the hanger must be maintained at a minimum in order to avoid distortion or wrinkling of the garment fabric for reasons that will hereinafter become apparent.

Accordingly, a primary object of this invention is to provide a garment hanger capable of accommodating garments of various sizes and supporting such garments during their travel through curing ovens, the hanger being capable of supporting a garment in such a way that it will not distort, wrinkle, crease or otherwise affect the fabric or the garment.

Another object of the invention is to provide industrial type garment hangers of an improved construction and greater versatility, whereby said hangers may be easily and rapidly employed during the finishing of a garment.

Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.

The garment hangers constructed in accordance with the invention are adapted to be used to support garments made of resin treated fabrics during the travel of the garments through an oven for the curing of the resin. The resin is such that, when cured, the fabric will permanently retain its shape, even after repeated washings. With such fabrics, pressing is not necessary and the garment will be substantially wrinkle-free for its life. It can be readily understood that any wrinkles, creases, etc., in the garment during its travel through the curing oven will be permanently set in the fabric. It is therefore of extreme importance that the hanger not distort, wrinkle, crease, mark, fold, twist, pinch, stretch, puncture or otherwise affect or damage the garment. Undesired wrinkles, etc., once permanently set after curing, cannot be removed from the garment and such garments thereby become unsatisfactory.

Garment hangers in accordance with the invention are generally of two types, one type adapted for supporting a skirt at the waistband thereof, the other type adapted to engage the cuff opening of pants legs to support a pair of pants by the two legs. For either garment, the hanger is provided with a multiplicity of short depending elements that grip the inside of the garment. Two elements are required for support of the garment and the placement of the plurality of depending elements is such that a broad range of sizes can be accommodated by a single hanger by judicious selection of the appropriate pair of depending elements. The elements are spring biased apart to supply only sufficient force to the inside of the garment to hold the garment in place with minimal distortion, creasing, etc.

The depending elements may be overfitted with ferrules "ice which would preferably be used where it is desired to avoid a sharp crease on the line of garment-hanger engagement. The ferrules also are effective to space the garment material to improve circulation of the hot air in the oven around the fabric for curing of the resin and also to improve circulation during cooling.

On the other hand, it may be desirable during curing of a pair of pants to have the fabric-hanger contact lines define a sharp crease in order that the crease in the pants leg will be permanently and properly set during curing.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the constructions hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.

For a fuller understanding of the invention, reference is had to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a pants hanger constructed in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of a skirt hanger constructed in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 3 is an end elevational view of the skirt hanger of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of an alternate embodiment of a skirt hanger;

FIG. 5 is an end elevational view of the skirt hanger of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a partial side elevational view of an alternate spring and hanger arrangement.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a pants hanger 11 is formed primarily of a continuous length of rod or wire of suitable diameter. Note that the diameter of the wire would be greater than that used in normal hangers found in the home since industrial hangers require a substantially greater serviceability. The central portion of wire 12 is folded back on itself and into a smooth curve to form a hanger portion 13. Wire 12 is divided into left end 14 and right end 15 with the right end being formed into a circle or coil to form a coil spring portion 16. Left and right ends 14 and 15 are bent outwardly away from one another to form straight sections 17 and 18 respectively and each straight section is thereafter bent into a boxshaped structure 19 and 20 respectively. The four corners of each box-shaped structure is provided with a depending element or finger 21 with one or more intermediate fingers 22 also depending from the box-shaped structure intermediate fingers 21. As shown, each boxshaped structure is provided with six depending fingers with half of the fingers lying in a first plane and the remainder of the fingers lying in a second plane spaced from the first plane whereby to provide means for supporting in spaced relation both legs of a pair of pants or slacks. As shown, each box-shaped structure has four sides with each terminal wire end hooked over and secured to the respective straight section to assure structural rigidity. Of course, it will be understood that pants hanger 11 could be provided with additional fingers, if

desired.

Fingers 21 and 22 may also be provided with overfitting ferrules 23 which can be formed of any suitable heat-resisting material. Ferrules 23 would preferably be used to avoid a sharp crease in the fabric at the areas of support and to also space apart adjacent layers of fabric for better air circulation during curing and subsequent cooling. As shown in phantom in FIG. 1, pants legs 24 and 25 would overfit the ferrules or depending fingers in order to support the garment and hold the fabric in a taut but unstretched condition. A slight separating pressure would be applied by coil spring portion 16 to assure proper support of the garment. The particular fingers selected for support of the garment would depend on the size of the opening into which the fingers are to be inserted. Note that ferrules 23 would be omitted if it were desired to set a sharp crease in the fabric at the points of contact between the fabric and depending fingers.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3, a skirt hanger 31 is shown also formed of a continuous wire having a hanger portion 32 and a coil spring portion 33. A left wire end 34 continues downwardly from hanger portion 32 and is bent at 35 to extend outwardly away from the center of the hanger. A right wire end 36 extends downwardly from coil spring portion 33 and is bent at 37 to extend outwardly away from the center of the hanger in a direction opposite to left wire end 34. A plurality of depending fingers 38 are formed in the left and right wire ends with the terminal ends forming the outermost fingers as shown in FIG. 2. If desired, ferrules 39 can be fitted over fingers 38. The waistband of a skirt shown in phantom as 41 is supported from a pair of depending fingers with coil spring portion 33 applying a suificient force to hold the skirt in position without distortion or wrinkling thereof. Since sharp creases are generally not required, ferrules 39 will generally be used in conjunction with all depending fingers for support of a skirt. The selection of the particular fingers from which the skirt is to be supported depends on the size of the waistband opening.

An alternate embodiment of a skirt hanger is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. A skirt hanger 51 includes a tube 52 slidably receiving a rod 53 with a coil spring 54 received in tube 52 and acting between the internal end of rod 53 and a stop 55 secured within the tube. A plurality of depending fingers 56 are secured to the outside of tube 52 and a plurality of depending fingers 57 are secured to the outside of rod 53. A wire member 58 having a central coil spring portion 59 and hooked ends 60 and 61 support the rod and tube. Hooked end 60 is preferably fixed to tube 52, such as by means of welding, while hooked end 61 is preferably secured to rod 53, by means of welding. Wire member 58 limits the movement of the rod with respect to the tube thereby holding them in the assembled position with the coil spring portion permitting relative movement under the urging of coil spring 54. A wire hook 62 is welded or otherwise secured to the wire member centrally of the coil spring portion. The waistband of a skirt is supported from a selected pair of fingers 56 and 57 with coil spring 54 and coil spring portion 59 applying sufiicient outward force to support the garment without distortion or wrinkling.

An alternate arrangement for the coil spring portion and the wire hook is shown in FIG. 6. In FIG. 6, wire member 71 has a straight central section 72, curved left and right sections 73 and 74, respectively, and depending left and right legs 75 and 76, respectively. Legs 75 and 76 would be secured to tube 52 and rod 53 in the same manner as shown in FIG. 4. Wire member 71 can be deflected through curved left and right sections 73 and 74 but may be more easily formed due to the elimination of the overlapping coil portion as embodied in wire member 58.

Wire hook 81 (FIG. 6) has a central curved portion 82 with outwardly extending straight sections 83 and 84. Straight section 84 is provided with a hooked end 85 while straight section 83 is bent into a connecting section 86 through which the wire hook is connected to wire member 71. A hook having the configuration of wire hook 81 shown in FIG. 6 can be used with any of the garment hangers heretofore described or in commercial use. It has the advantage that it permits the hanger to be hung from a fiat bar as well as a round support. Thus, in hanging hook 81 on a round support, central curved portion 82 would engage the support while, on a flat bar, straight sections 83 and 84 would engage the bar for optimum support of the hanger. Such a hook is especially useful in a conveying system having fiat portions at the corners.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, among those made apparent from the preceding description, are efficiently attained and, since certain changes may be made in the above constructions without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

What is claimed is:

1. A garment hanger formed of a continuous length of wire, comprising a folded-over, curved central hanger portion, single thickness, coiled, spring portion, and outwardly extending left and right portions, each of said left and right portions forming a box-shaped structure, the plane of each box-shaped structure being'substantially perpendicular to a plane passing through the hanger and spring portions, each of said left and right boxshaped structures being provided with a plurality of integrally formed depending fingers.

2. The structure defined in claim 1 wherein said integrally formed depending fingers lie in two spaced parallel planes, said spaced parallel planes being parallel to the plane passing through the hanger and spring portions.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 643,818 2/1900 Headland 223-95 X 717,147 12/1902 Walter 223- X 1,212,024 1/1917 Dahlgren 223-85 X 1,244,342 10/1917 Koenig 223-94 1,605,184 11/1926 Heddens 223-95 2,205,489 6/1940 Nelson 223-95 2,214,848 9/1940 Young 223-92 2,261,819 11/ 1941 Zeuthen 223-95 2,510,375 6/1950 Brant 223-89 2,608,324 8/1952 Currier 223-95 2,829,810 4/1958 Wilson 223-88 2,843,298 7/1958 Jagr 223-95 3,002,662 10/1961 Albright 2. 223-95 3,031,114 4/1962 Tiffner 223-95 JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

FRANK J. COHEN, G. KRIZMANICH,

Assistant Examiners. 

1. A GARMENT HANGER FORMED OF A CONTINUOUS LENGTH OF WIRE, COMPRISING A FOLDED-OVER, CURVED CENTRAL HANGER PORTION, SINGLE THICKNESS, COILED, SPRING PORTION, AND OUTWARDLY EXTENDING LEFT AND RIGHT PORTION, EACH OF SAID LEFT AND RIGHT PORTIONS FORMING A BOX-SHAPED STRUCTURE, THE PLANE OF EACH BOX-SHAPED STRUCTURE BEING SUBSTANTIALLY PERPENDICULAR TO A PLANE PASSING THROUGH THE HANGER AND SPRING PORTIONS, EACH OF SAID LEFT AND RIGHT BOXSHAPED STRUCTURES BEING PROVIDED WITH A PLURALITY OF INTEGRALLY FORMED DEPENDING FINGERS. 